Municipal Corporations Act 1882

PART VI Charitable and other Trusts and Powers.

Charitable Trusts.

133 Administration of charitable trusts and vesting of legal estate.

(1) Where at the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, the body corporate of a borough, or any one or more of the members thereof, in his or their corporate capacity, stood solely, or together with any person or persons elected solely by that body corporate, or solely by any particular number, class, or description of members thereof, seised or possessed, for any estate or interest, of land, in whole or in part in trust or for the benefit of any charitable uses or trusts, and the legal estate in that land was, at the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, vested in the body corporate or person or persons so seised or possessed thereof, and was by the [16 & 17 Vict. c. 137. s. 65.] Charitable Trusts Act, 1853, vested in the trustees appointed by the Lord Chancellor under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, or such of them as should be surviving and continuing trustees under that appointment, according to the respective estates and interests therein, and subject to such and the same charges and incumbrances, and on such and the same trusts, as the same were subject to before such vesting, then, in every case, on the death, resignation, or removal of any trustee, and on any appointment of a new trustee, the legal estate in that land and in all other lands subject to any such charitable uses or trusts for the time being vested in the trustees or any of them, or in any persons or the heirs or devisees of any person deceased, resigned, or removed, shall vest in the persons who after such death, resignation, . or removal, and such appointment of a new trustee, continue or are the trustees for the time being, without any conveyance or assurance.

(2) Nothing in this section shall take away, abridge, or prejudicially affect any power, authority, or jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales.

Special Trusts and Powers.

134 Corporation to be trustee where corporators trustees.

The municipal corporation of a borough shall be trustees for executing by the council the powers and provisions of all Acts of Parliament made before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835 (other than Acts made for securing charitable uses and trusts), and of all trusts (other than charitable uses and trusts) of which the body corporate of the borough, or any of the members thereof in their corporate capacity, was or were sole trustees before the first election of councillors in the borough under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835.

135 Appointment of members of council to be trustees in cases of joint trusts and other cases.

(1) In every borough in which the body corporate, or a particular or limited number, class, or description of members thereof, or of persons appointed by the body corporate, was or were before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, trustees jointly with other trustees for the execution of any Act of Parliament, or of any trust, or in which the body corporate, or any particular or limited number, class, or description of members or nominees thereof, by any statute, charter, byelaw, or custom, before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, was or were, lawfully appointed to or exercised any powers, duties, or functions, not otherwise in the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, or this Act, provided for, and the continuance of which is not inconsistent with the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, or this Act, the council, on the day prescribed in any Act of Parliament as aforesaid, or in the deed or will by which the trust is created, for a new election, nomination, or appointment of trustees, or on which a new election, nomination, or appointment has usually been made, (and if there is no day prescribed or usually observed, then on or within ten days after the first of January in every year,) shall-appoint the like number of members of the council, or as near as may be to the like number of members of the council, as there where theretofore members or nominees of the body corporate of the borough who in right of their office were such trustees, or charged with the execution of such powers, duties, and functions, in room of the members or nominees of the body corporate ceasing to be trustees, Or ceasing to exercise such powers, duties, and functions by virtue of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835.

(2) In every case of extraordinary vacancy among the trustees or persons so appointed, the council shall forthwith appoint one other member of the council in the room of the person by whom the vacancy has been made, to hold his trust or office for such time as that person would regularly have held it.

Local Acts.

136 Transfer of powers of local authorities to municipal corporations.

(1) The trustees appointed or acting by or under any local Act of Parliament for the time being in force, for paving, lighting, supplying with water or gas, cleansing, watching, regulating, or improving, a borough, or any part thereof, or for providing or maintaining a cemetery or market in or for a borough, or any part thereof, whether in any such case their powers under the local Act do or do not extend beyond the borough, may, if they think fit, at a meeting called for this purpose, transfer to the municipal corporation of the borough, with the consent of the council but not otherwise, all the rights, powers, estates, property, and liabilities for the time being vested in or imposed on the trustees under the local Act.

(2) The transfer shall be made in writing under the" common seal of the trustees if they are a corporation, and if not, then by deed executed by the trustees, or by any two of them acting by their authority and on their behalf.

(3) On the transfer being made, the municipal corporation shall become and be the trustees for executing by the council the powers and provisions of the local Act; and all the rights, powers, estates, and property vested in the transferring trustees shall vest in the corporation ; and all the liabilities and obligations of the transferring trustees shall he transferred to and borne by the corporations and the transferring trustees shall be discharged therefrom.

137 Power for council to extend local lighting Act.

(1) Where at the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, there was a local Act of Parliament for lighting part of a borough then incorporated, the council may, if they think fit, make an order that any specified part of the borough not within the provisions of any such local Act shall, after a day fixed in the order, be within those provisions; and after that day the part so specified shall be within those provisions, as far as relates to lighting, or to any rate authorized to be levied for lighting.

(2) But the part so specified shall be lighted in like manner as those parts of the borough which before the making of the order were within those provisions ; and any rate raised for the purpose of defraying the expenses of lighting the part so specified shall not exceed the average expense in the pound of lighting the other parts of the borough.

138 Exercise of powers under local Acts.

Everything provided under any local Act of Parliament in force on the twentieth or August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, to be done exclusively by a particular or limited number, class, or description of the members of any body corporate named in the Schedules to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, the continuance of which was not inconsistent with the provisions of that Act, and everything provided in any such local Act to be done by the justices, or by some particular class or description, or members of such body corporate, being justices, at a court of quarter sessions, which did not relate to the business of a court of criminal or civil judicature, if the same respectively has been lawfully continued to be done up to the commencement of this Act by the council, or a committee thereof, shall be continued thereafter to be done by the council at a quarterly meeting, or by any three of a committee of the council appointed at such a meeting.